05 clays car robin engine locked up

[tedstephens]

Hello all,
I bought this golf cart yesterday off Craig’s list. Listed at $1000 not running, so I went to check it out, cart was used at a horse ranch and was covered in mud. I have rebuilt some electric carts and thought I’d try a gas model. So today I spent the day cleaning the mud off it and find the year and numbers. Put the battery on charge and hit the pedal and the starter runs but noticed belt slipping on starter pulley. Pulled the plugs out and tried to roll the engine over put a wrench on the clutch locked up tight. So my question is engine cylinders seized up? Crank bearings seized? Anyone experienced this oil on dipstick looks ok air filter in tact looks ok, if I pull the engine and tear down are parts available? How much are rebuild parts? Is it worth rebuilding the engine, like. I said first time owner of a gas engine cart any information is appreciated. Also what do you think of this roll bar looks manufactured and the nerf bars are pretty nice looking
Thanks Ted

[CP241]

That’s an MCI engine and if I had to guess I’d say the cam is seized inside the journal in the head from oil deprivation. As trig knows, I HATE the lubrication system on these MCI engines.

My .02 id take the motor apart and see what’s goin inside it. But in all likelihood it’s probably not worth rebuilding. If my suspicions are correct it’s got a lot of parts that aren’t useable cores in a rebuild so they’re gonna charge big for those.

Still for $1k not a bad score. If it were mine and the engine is what I think it is, I would get a cradle, clutch, and belt from vegas carts. Get a lifan from Home Depot and call it a day. The Home Depot lifan has a 15 amp charging circuit so you can run lights and stuff. Most of the clones are 2 maybe 3 amps.

That’s what I did with a cheap TXT I bought a few years ago. It was a lot of fun. Cart was lifted so I was able to literally bolt the engine into the cradle as-is, wire up the electric start to the battery and I went from roller cart to driving it around my field in about 3 hours. The vegas kit made it SUPER easy. Then I did the stuff like fuel pump and muffler and everything as time permitted. That engine also made WAY more power than the stock one ever could have. There’s some good money in selling the oem ignitor, coil, muffler, and all those other oem parts as well to help recoup a good chunk of the swap investment.

I think I was into it around $1000 for the entire setup. And sold off the old parts for a good $300-400 back

[tedstephens]

Thanks for the reply, looks like a vegas cart kit for $1,100 and a 22 HP predator engine $1,000 is in order. Engine is outlawed in Ca. So will need to drive to AZ to buy the engine, California what a joke!
Looks like I might be doing a whole cart restoration on this one, so far the frame looks solid, body is good wheels need polished, need a new dashboard, modify the roll bar and power coat and add a rear seat. I bought the cart thinking I was going to get it running and just flip it. I think some type of canvass roof would look cool and extend it over the back seat.

[CP241]

Pull the original engine apart before diving into a swap. You never know :)

I didn’t buy the whole “kit”. I just got the cradle, cvtech clutch, and belt from vegas carts. Think it ran me about 500 for it all. Then got the lifan from Home Depot. That was 450. I did have an old generator I stole the airbox from it because it’s the same as the vegas carts one. I just drilled a hole in the poly carb spacer and put in a barbed pulse fitting for the fuel pump. And left it key start for simplicity. I gutted all the original wiring and relocated the key switch from the box to the dash. Worked out great. It went through mud and trails like a beast. The “road” I lived on (more of a 2 track really) had some gnarly mud holes. Few of the folks here will attest how bad it was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sD5hAa773g

I still was using the muffler that came on the motor here. It fit fine because the cart was lifted. I did buy a Walker muffler for it but never had a chance to put it on. Ended up selling it because I was getting ready to move across the country.

[trig123]

Originally Posted by CP241

Pull the original engine apart before diving into a swap. You never know :)

I didn’t buy the whole “kit”. I just got the cradle, cvtech clutch, and belt from vegas carts. Think it ran me about 500 for it all. Then got the lifan from Home Depot. That was 450. I did have an old generator I stole the airbox from it because it’s the same as the vegas carts one. I just drilled a hole in the poly carb spacer and put in a barbed pulse fitting for the fuel pump. And left it key start for simplicity. I gutted all the original wiring and relocated the key switch from the box to the dash. Worked out great. It went through mud and trails like a beast. The “road” I lived on (more of a 2 track really) had some gnarly mud holes. Few of the folks here will attest how bad it was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sD5hAa773g

I still was using the muffler that came on the motor here. It fit fine because the cart was lifted. I did buy a Walker muffler for it but never had a chance to put it on. Ended up selling it because I was getting ready to move across the country.

That engine sounded like a pea thresher

[raydhd]

Originally Posted by tedstephens

Thanks for the reply, looks like a vegas cart kit for $1,100 and a 22 HP predator engine $1,000 is in order. Engine is outlawed in Ca. So will need to drive to AZ to buy the engine, California what a joke!
Looks like I might be doing a whole cart restoration on this one, so far the frame looks solid, body is good wheels need polished, need a new dashboard, modify the roll bar and power coat and add a rear seat. I bought the cart thinking I was going to get it running and just flip it. I think some type of canvass roof would look cool and extend it over the back seat.

If your S/G is good you can use any single cylinder clone that are good for cal and a few Vegascarts parts to do the swap. A lot cheaper than the Vtwin swap. It all depends on your end goal is such as do you want to retain the pedal start?

[CP241]

Originally Posted by trig123

That engine sounded like a pea thresher

But it sure ran like a beast.

Definitely not ideal for a cruiser. Too loud and rough for my tastes. but for a woods or farm toy it was pretty awesome

[Cartmaster]

For a first diagnosis, I would pop the drive clutch off, remove Cam belt cover and Cam belt, pop the clutch back on and then try to turn the engine. If it turns, the cam is seized in the head. In this case I would recommend the Vegas swap or similar. If the engine does not turn but the cam turns, it's worth a rebuild. My guess is that the fan cover was blocked up with mud etc and you have a ring seizure from overheating. If you suspect this, put some diesel down the plug holes and let soak for a few days and see if you can free off the engine. If so, it may be fine and will run. In this case a simple hone and new rings will bring it back to life.

[SolarRat]

I'd spray penetrating lube in the spark plug holes and let it sit a few days first, ya might get lucky.

[tedstephens]

Originally Posted by Cartmaster

For a first diagnosis, I would pop the drive clutch off, remove Cam belt cover and Cam belt, pop the clutch back on and then try to turn the engine. If it turns, the cam is seized in the head. In this case I would recommend the Vegas swap or similar. If the engine does not turn but the cam turns, it's worth a rebuild. My guess is that the fan cover was blocked up with mud etc and you have a ring seizure from overheating. If you suspect this, put some diesel down the plug holes and let soak for a few days and see if you can free off the engine. If so, it may be fine and will run. In this case a simple hone and new rings will bring it back to life.

This sounds like the plan, if the cam is seized is this a pushrod engine, I haven’t seen any semantic of the engine. Is it an overhead camshaft are there no cam bearings? Cam journal seizure is not reparable? I see you say the cam is seized in the head, can I replace the head buy the parts?
Thanks for all the imput